France has set aside 1 billion euro to invest in the oil and gas industry of Nigeria, the French ambassador in the West African country told media.

The announcement comes a week after France’s Environment Minister said the ministry had drafted a law aimed to terminate the awarding of new oil and gas licenses at home.

Since France is far from a major oil producer, with daily output as of April

Oil supermajors need to invest some 420 billion annually in renewable energy to build a dominant position in the industry, Wood Mackenzie has estimated.

This would be a substantial increase on their current spending on renewables, which is a far cry from what Big Oil spends on fossil fuel exploration and production every year: up to $10 billion. To compare, Shell last year said it will be

Government officials in Washington have started looking into sanction waivers for countries that import Iranian oil and cannot just stop doing so next Monday.

This is when U.S. sanctions against Tehran return and despite the stated goal of President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo they want to bring Iranian crude exports down to zero it became clear soon after Trump announced there will

Iran's oil exports will not fall below 1 million barrels daily after the imposition of U.S. sanctions, effective November 5, said the first vie-president of Iran.

The reason Iranian oil exports cannot be brought down to zero is simply that there is no other crude to substitute for these barrels. This is something Tehran has been arguing for a while and despite assurances from the U.S. and Saudi

The International Energy Agency has called on oil-exporting countries to take their economic diversification more seriously because the challenges of EVs and energy efficiency will only intensify.

This, IEA's head Fatih Birol said, will undermine their oil revenues and since the process is irreversible, apparently, will affect their economies adversely.

This is not the first urge on oil producers

Iraq is producing crude oil at a record rate of 4.78 million barrels daily, which will rise further to 5 million bpd in 2019 and 7.5 million bpd in 2024, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said recently.

This has turned Iraq into the world's fourth-largest oil producer, overtaking Canada, and becoming an even more important swing factor in the world of oil prices.

The problem is that Iraq is still a very

Countries importing Iranian oil would need to reduce their intake by more than 20% if they want to score a waiver from U.S. sanctions, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin told Reuters this weekend.

A 20% cut in Iranian imports was what the Obama administration required from importers to provide waivers during the previous round of U.S. sanctions against Tehran. The Trump administration, however, has

Goldman Sachs' chief commodities analyst Jeffrey Currie said the bank did not expect crude oil to jump to $100 a barrel in a reversal of earlier expectations.

This is the latest sign that analysts are quickly beginning to change their opinion on oil prices as it is becoming increasingly clear that Iran's oil exports will not be brought down to zero, regardless of what Washington wants.

Actually,

Traders were apparently surprised once again by the American Petroleum Institute, which reported an estimated draw in US oil inventories, pushing benchmark prides higher.

This is the fourth day of gains for oil Reuters reports, with Brent crude trading at $81.53 a barrel in midmorning trade in Asia and WTI changing hands at $72.07 a barrel.

API said crude oil inventories in the US had shrunk by 1.2

Higher oil prices have helped Iran weather the effects of lower exports following the United States' pullout of the so-called Iran nuclear deal.

This is what the country's vice-president, Eshaq Jahangiri, who also added that while some importers had stopped buying Iranian crude, Iran has found new buyers as well.

“America thinks Saudi Arabia can replace this oil. But right now Iran’s oil has